Schools sweat N.J. layoff, levy deadlines

With two critical New Jersey deadlines looming, school districts across the region and around the state find themselves in a roiling sea of uncertainty.

Saturday is the deadline for districts to formally inform staff members who may be laid off. Employees already on notice are doing their jobs wondering if they will be back in September.

By May 19, municipal boards are supposed to have approved tax levies in the 59 percent of districts where voters rejected school budgets last month. Most are expected to cut rather than keep the levy first proposed.

On top of that, the Legislature and federal government may, or may not, find additional aid for schools. And if Gov. Christie gets his proposed pension changes, a last-minute wave of retirements by the district's most experienced teachers could lead to cancellation of some layoffs as late as August.

"I can't remember another year where the rules kept changing," said Emily Capella, superintendent of the Lenape Regional High School District in Burlington County.

Just about everyone is feeling it: administrators stymied in their efforts to plan and having to give bitter news to valued employees; municipal officials trying to whittle already-spare budgets; students and parents wondering what the next school year will be like without favorite teachers or programs. Almost no one is immune from anxiety.

Certainly not Scott Goldthorp, 28, a math teacher at Rosa International Middle School in Cherry Hill. Formerly in sales, he arrived at Rosa 21/2 years ago, drawn by a passion to become an educator. Since then, he has taught science and math and was accepted into a highly competitive master's program.

"Brilliant" is the word his principal, Ed Canzanese, uses to describe Goldthorp. But, he said, "I may not be able to keep him."

Goldthorp is one of thousands of school employees statewide who have or are expected to receive layoff notices. Like others, his job depends on how additional budget cuts are handled and whether more state or federal aid materializes.

Thursday night, the Cherry Hill Township Council announced its decision to cut the school district's voter-defeated levy by $2.5 million. The council's nonbinding recommendations included cutting $800,000 from administrative salaries and an equal amount from anticipated staff raises. Even before the budget was defeated, the district planned to ax almost 90 positions and cut programs.

Mayor Bernie Platt said at the meeting that the voters' rejection of the budget had sent a message that they were "fed up" with taxes, state government, insufficient state and federal support for schools, and "the outrageous salaries and benefits of this school administration."

As in other municipalities, district officials must determine how to meet the council's number. The district also could appeal the cut to the state.

Meanwhile, Goldthorp - whose wife, a Haddon Heights teacher, had her layoff notice rescinded when the budget passed there - is doing his job.

"It's kind of funny," he said. "When I'm here working, I just think about teaching the kids. It's the last thing on my mind."

Tenured teachers around the state also are feeling unsettled. At Stockton Elementary in Cherry Hill, Linda Stimeck, 58, is a reading specialist who has mentored new teachers. With more than 37 years on the job, she isn't in jeopardy of losing her position.

But Christie's effort to reduce pension benefits for workers who retire after Aug. 1, a proposal that may be introduced in Trenton this week, has made her think about handing in her papers.

"I have to consider it, because if I'm going to lose money by working longer, it doesn't make sense," said Stimeck, who has a daughter in college.

Hard decisions and tense times are occurring all over the state.

"Never in my 34 years in this business have I ever seen anything remotely close to this," Waterford Superintendent Gary Dentino said. "This is just off the charts."

As a precaution, Dentino said, his district will send layoff notices to every employee to comply with a law requiring 60 days' notice before a reduction in force. School officials do not know how much the municipality will cut their tax levy.

Many districts sought tax increases to help offset cuts to state education formula aid, which was reduced by almost $820 million overall. On top of that, a cut to current-year aid forced districts to drain surplus funds they had intended for the coming year.

Christie has proposed a "tool kit" of measures intended to limit property taxes and help districts rein in labor costs. Some have been endorsed by the New Jersey School Boards Association, while some have been attacked by the New Jersey Education Association, the union representing most of the state's teachers.

A few districts have found relief.

In Pemberton Township, several unusual late-year retirements will save nearly $480,000 - about the amount the district had sought to raise its levy, business administrator Pat Austin said. The teachers who are leaving, she said, were concerned about Christie's pension proposal.

"It's a win-win situation with regard to how we solve this problem," Austin said.

Delran Superintendent George Sharp wrote in an e-mail that 10 senior staff members had decided to retire, but that there were still unknowns, including municipal cuts and state and federal funding interventions.

"We are doing everything in our power to reduce the impact upon our students," Sharp wrote.

Some educators say a mass departure of veteran teachers would hurt schools. While their exit would save districts their higher salaries, "there are a lot of senior teachers who have given their heart and soul to this. They are masterful," Lenape's Capella said. "If there is an exodus, we're going to lose a lot of what is great about our district."

On Thursday, Lenape's Board of Education approved salary and benefit concessions from every district employee, including a wage freeze by teachers, to save about $2.3 million. If the municipalities in the district don't require more cuts, Capella said, many of the 400 employees who got layoff notices will be spared.

Before the April 20 school-budget vote, Christie encouraged voters, who pay the highest property taxes in the country, to reject spending plans in districts where teachers had not taken the freezes.

In Cinnaminson, where taxpayers defeated a nearly 10 percent levy increase, principals recently spoke to all 27 employees who had received layoff notices.

"We are losing some outstanding people, which is the case everywhere," Superintendent Salvatore Illuzzi said.

Cinnaminson Mayor Anthony Minniti has called on teachers and administrators to freeze their pay, and the district is in talks with its unions.

Illuzzi, like other education officials, fears that the reductions being made to programs will have long-term impact. In Cinnaminson, for example, aides who help struggling children are slated to be cut.

"These things will come back to haunt you," he said. "Maybe not next year, maybe not in two years. But it will."

In Southampton, voters defeated the budget even though the district's teachers had agreed to the freeze. The budgets in Mantua and Florence, where teachers froze their wages, also failed. The only local freeze district where the budget passed was Woodland Township.

Southampton Superintendent Michael Harris said the savings from the freeze would come close to the approximately $200,000 that municipal leaders wanted cut from the budget. But he expressed doubt that schools' financial difficulties were temporary.

He said Christie's "tool kit" proposal to set the maximum annual tax levy increase at 2.5 percent, down from 4 percent, could lessen future tax increases but would limit districts' ability to cover rising costs. Public employees are being required to contribute to the cost of their health benefits, but the price of those benefits continues to climb, he said.

"The concern," Harris said, "is this doesn't seem to be a one-year anomaly."

 

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Contact staff writer Rita Giordano at 856-779-3841 or rgiordano@phillynews.com.